How can I test a backup of local folders to make sure that the emails in it are readable?
I have old emails stored in local folders. If I backup my profile (to a separate hard disk) in order to backup the local folders, how can I easily check that the emails in the backup can be read? The backed up profile, of course, has the same name as my active profile.
It looks like I can do it by playing around with the profiles.ini file and possibly with Profile Manager, but that seems like quite a complex (and potentially risky) operation to achieve a simple backup integrity check.
All Replies (4)
In the backup profile, look in the Mail/Local Folders location for the mbox files, the ones with no extension that contain the message content. Copy an mbox file, possibly after renaming it to distinguish from existing folders, into the Mail/Local folders directory of the active profile, while TB is closed. When you restart TB, you should see the backup folder under Local Folders.
As last resort, you can view an mbox file in a text editor.
You can also import mbox files into the OS X Mail app.
Thank you for the suggestion. I guess it works, though it means backing up the folders to the other disk, then copying them back to the main disk to check them, which seems - wasteful? But perhaps there is nothing better.
if you were to back up your mail to a second profile created in the profile manager then your would be able to click on throubleshooting information on the help menu, then about:profiles at tghe bottom of the application basic section and select the second profile to load. It requires a little more initial setup, using the profile manager to configure the second profile, but it is probably the easiest way to load a second profile after the event.
Using about:profiles sounds like a good solution. I'll try it. Thank you.